Human rights in Cuba
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Human rights in Cuba are under the scrutiny of human rights organizations, which accuse the
Overview
Concerns have been expressed about the operation of due process. According to Human Rights Watch, even though Cuba, officially atheist until 1992, now "permits greater opportunities for religious expression than it did in past years, and has allowed several religious-run humanitarian groups to operate, the government still maintains tight control on religious institutions, affiliated groups, and individual believers".[5] Censorship in Cuba has also been at the center of complaints.[6][7] According to the report of Human Rights Watch from 2017 the government continues to rely on arbitrary detention to harass and intimidate critics, independent activists, political opponents, and others. This report added that the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, an independent human rights group that lacks official authorization and is therefore considered illegal by the government, received more than 7,900 reports of arbitrary detentions from January through August 2016. This represents the highest monthly average of detentions in the past six years.[8]
Amnesty International's 2017-2018 Annual Report also noted more arbitrary detentions, discriminatory layoffs by state agencies and harassments in self-employment with the aim of making them silent in criticism. Regarding any progress in education, Amnesty International reported that advances in education were undermined by ongoing online and offline censorship. Cuba remained mostly closed to independent human rights monitors.[9]
With regard to arbitrary arrests and detentions, the report added that human rights activists and political activists continued to be harassed, intimidated and arbitrarily detained in high numbers. The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, a Cuban NGO which is not officially recognized by the state, recorded 5,155 arbitrary detentions in 2017, in contrast to 9,940 in 2016.
Cuba is a regional leader in women's rights issues.[10][11]
History
Cuba portal |
During
After independence, and following a sustained period of instability, the 1924–33 capitalist government of
From 1940, Cuba had a multiparty electoral system until Fulgencio Batista (President from 1940–1944) staged a coup with military backing on March 10, 1952.[15][16]
To quell the growing discontent amongst the populace—which was subsequently displayed through frequent student riots and demonstrations—Batista established tighter censorship of the media, while also utilizing his Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities secret police to carry out wide-scale violence, torture and public executions. These murders mounted in 1957, as socialist ideas became more influential. Many people were killed, with estimates ranging from hundreds to about 20,000 people killed.[17][18][19][20][21][22][23]
On October 6, 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy, in the midst of his campaign for the U.S. presidency, decried Batista's relationship with the U.S. government and criticized the Eisenhower administration for supporting him:
Fulgencio Batista murdered 20,000 Cubans in seven years ... and he turned Democratic Cuba into a complete police state—destroying every individual liberty. Yet our aid to his regime, and the ineptness of our policies, enabled Batista to invoke the name of the United States in support of his reign of terror. Administration spokesmen publicly praised Batista—hailed him as a staunch ally and a good friend—at a time when Batista was murdering thousands, destroying the last vestiges of freedom, and stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the Cuban people, and we failed to press for free elections.[24]
In 1958, Time magazine wrote: "Cuba's fanatic, poorly armed rebels last week tried to smash President Fulgencio Batista with the ultimate weapon of civilian revolutions: the general strike. ... Fulgencio Batista got ready for the strike by offering immunity to anyone who killed a striker and by threatening to jail any employer who closed shop." During the strike, militants and youths stole guns, and threw bombs (one of which may have set up a gas-mains fire), after which some people were killed in clashes."[25]
According to Time magazine, "The strike was short-lived: "With the upper hand, Batista drove boldly around the city while his cops proceeded to make their supremacy complete. When a patrol car radioed that it had clashed with rebels and had 'a dead man and a prisoner', the dispatcher ordered: 'Shoot him.' At midafternoon, cops burst into a boardinghouse, grabbed three young men who were leaders of Cuba's lay Catholic Action movement, which sympathizes with Castro. Two hours later their stripped, tortured and bullet-torn bodies were turned over to relatives. Total dead: 43."[25]
In 1959, Fidel Castro and his forces succeeded in displacing Batista from power. At that time there were fundamental changes in the judicial and political process. During this transitional period there were some concerns voiced about due process.[26][27]
The "Cuban National Reconciliation movement", a U.S.-based organisation that claims to act as a forum for discussing Cuban society, has detailed what it believes are complex variables when analysing human rights immediately after the revolution. In the 1960s, violent confrontations known as the
After coming to power in 1959, Fidel Castro's government built a highly effective machinery of repression, according to Human Rights Watch.[5]
As early as September 1959, Vadim Kotchergin (or Kochergin), a KGB agent, was seen in Cuba.[29][30] Jorge Luis Vasquez, a Cuban who was imprisoned in East Germany, states that the East German secret police Stasi trained the personnel of the Cuban Interior Ministry (MININT).[31]
Political executions
Various estimates have been made in order to ascertain the number of political executions which have been carried out on behalf of the Cuban government since the revolution. During the first two months of 1959, Castro's government executed more than 300 Batista officials,
The vast majority of those executed directly following the 1959 revolution were policemen, politicians and informers for the Batista regime who were accused of crimes such as torture and murder, and their public trials and executions enjoyed widespread popular support among the Cuban population. Most scholars agree that those executed were most likely guilty as charged, but their trials did not follow due process.[36][37] The Cuban Government justified such measures on the grounds that in Cuba, the application of capital punishment against war criminals and others followed the same procedure which had previously been followed by the Allies during the Nuremberg trials. Some Cuban scholars maintain that if the government had not imposed severe legislation against the torturers, terrorists, and other criminals who had been employed by the Batista regime, the people themselves would have taken justice into their own hands.[38]
Alleged forced labor camps and abuse of prisoners
In 1987, a "Tribunal on Cuba" was held in
Political abuse of psychiatry
Although Cuba has been politically connected to the Soviet Union since the United States broke off relations with Cuba shortly after its prime minister
In August 1981, the Marxist historian Ariel Hidalgo was apprehended and accused of "incitement against the social order, international solidarity and the Socialist State" and sentenced to eight years' imprisonment.[40]: 75 In September 1981, he was transported from State Security Headquarters to the Carbó-Serviá (forensic) ward of the Havana Psychiatric Hospital and stayed there for several weeks.[40]: 76
Contemporary Cuba
Political repression
A 2009 report by Human Rights Watch concluded that "Raúl Castro has kept Cuba's repressive machinery firmly in place...since being handed power by his brother Fidel Castro."[41] The report found that "[s]cores of political prisoners arrested under Fidel continue to languish in prison, and Raúl has used draconian laws and sham trials to incarcerate scores more who have dared to exercise their fundamental rights."
US government-funded Freedom House classifies Cuba as being "Not Free",[42] and notes that "Cuba is the only country in the Americas that consistently makes Freedom House's list of the Worst of the Worst: the World's Most Repressive Societies for widespread abuses of political rights and civil liberties."[42] The 2017 World Report by Human Rights Watch writes that independent journalists who publish information considered critical of the government are subject to smear campaigns and arbitrary arrests, as are artists and academics who demand greater freedoms.[8]
A 1999 Human Rights Watch report notes that the Interior Ministry's principal responsibility is to monitor the Cuban population for signs of dissent.[43] In 1991 two new mechanisms for internal surveillance and control emerged. Communist Party leaders organized the Singular Systems of Vigilance and Protection (Sistema Unico de Vigilancia y Protección, SUVP). Rapid Action Brigades (Brigadas de Acción Rapida, also referred to as Rapid Response Brigades, or Brigadas de Respuesta Rápida) observe and control dissidents.[43] The government also "maintains academic and labor files (expedientes escolares y laborales) for each citizen, in which officials record actions or statements that may bear on the person's loyalty to the revolution. Before advancing to a new school or position, the individual's record must first be deemed acceptable".[43]
The opposition movement in Cuba is a widespread collection of individuals and nongovernmental organizations, most of whom are working for the respect of
On October 18, 2019, the U.S. Commerce Department announced that the United States will impose new sanctions against Cuba following its poor human rights records and its support of the Venezuelan government. In particular, José Daniel Ferrer's continued detention was brought into notice in a different statement which was issued by the U.S. State Department. Ferrer, who heads the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), has been kept in detention by the Cuban government and his whereabouts have not been revealed.[45]
Censorship
Cuba officially adopted the civil and political rights enumerated in the
Cuba's ranking was on the bottom of the
According to American group Committee to Protect Journalists, the media in Cuba are operated under the supervision of the Communist Party's Department of Revolutionary Orientation, which "develops and coordinates propaganda strategies".[48]
Human rights groups and international organizations[
A formal structure and system of reporting news not approved by the government was first attempted in 1993.[53] The effort for an independent, uncensored news agency was spearheaded by Cuban human rights activist and then-President of Christian Democratic Movement Jesús Permuy.[53] It formally began in May of that year as Members of Civic Democratic Action, an umbrella group of nearly twenty Castro opposition organizations, formed an alliance with the Independent Cuban Journalists Association.[53] The effort ultimately failed.
A Reporters Without Borders report as of October 2006 finds that Internet use is very restricted and under tight surveillance. Access is only possible with government permission and equipment is rationed. E-mail is monitored.[54]
Foreign journalists are systematically expelled from Cuba, e.g. notable journalists of Gazeta Wyborcza, Anna Bikont and Seweryn Blumsztahn, were expelled in 2005.[55]
Restrictions on assembly
As of 2005, Human Rights Watch stated that "freedom of assembly is severely restricted in Cuba, and political dissidents are generally prohibited from meeting in large groups."[51] In 2006, Amnesty stated that "All human rights, civil and professional associations and unions that exist today in Cuba outside the officialdom of the state apparatus and mass organizations controlled by the government are barred from having legal status. This often puts at risk the individuals who belong to these associations of facing harassment, intimidation or criminal charges for activities which constitute the legitimate exercise of the fundamental freedoms of expression, association and assembly."[56]
The Cuban authorities only recognize a single national trade union centre, the
Society
In 2001 an attempt was made by
Another important project is the establishment of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society. The Assembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba is a coalition of 365 independent civil society groups with the stated aims of "forming a democratic culture", "developing a social movement", strengthening the Assembly's organization, communicating among groups to promote the civil society, using all available means to combat poverty and seeking the betterment of the community's life conditions, developing a true knowledge of Cuba's history, in all its dimensions: economic, social and political, undertaking activities and projects aimed at the protection and conservation of natural resources and the ecosystem, and promoting a true culture on labor rights.[61] The Assembly had its first meeting in May 2005.[62]
Capital punishment
Cuba placed a moratorium on the use of capital punishment in 1999. However, an exception was made when, in 2003, three members of a gang of ten were executed for a ferry hijacking. The hijackers were attempting to reach Florida, but ran out of fuel only halfway to their destination. After a two-day stand-off, the ferry was escorted by coast guard patrol boats back to a Cuban port, ostensibly to refuel; when hostages began jumping over the sides of the ship, however, the authorities subdued the hijackers and regained control. Four other men were given life sentences, and the remaining three women involved received 1–5 years in prison.[63]
Acts of repudiation
Human rights groups including Amnesty International have long been critical of what the Cuban authorities have termed "Acts of repudiation" (actos de repudio). These acts occur when large groups of citizens verbally abuse, intimidate and sometimes physically assault and throw stones and other objects at the homes of Cubans who are considered
Notable prisoners of conscience
This section needs additional citations for verification. (March 2021) |
- In 1960, David Horowitzhas since called Valladares a "Human Rights Hero."
- In 1973, gay writer Mariel Boatlift, Arenas described the horrors he endured under the Cuban government in his autobiography Antes que anochezca (1992), English translation Before Night Falls (1993).
- On August 28, 1998, a Havana court sentenced Reynaldo Alfaro García, a member of the Democratic Solidarity Party, to three years in prison for "spreading enemy propaganda" and "rumour-mongering".
- Desi Mendoza, a Cuban doctor, was imprisoned for making statements criticizing Cuba's response to an epidemic of dengue fever in Santiago de Cuba which he alleged had caused several deaths. Dr. Mendoza had previously been fired from his job in a Cuban hospital three years earlier for establishing an independent medical association. He was later released due to ill-health, subject to his leaving the country.[67][68]
- Óscar Elías Biscet, a medical doctor, has been sentenced to prison for 25 years for his non-violent, but vocal opposition to Castro.
- In early 2003, dozens of persons, including independent journalists, librarians and other opponents of the Castro government were jailed after summary show trials, with some sentences in excess of 20 years, on the charge of receiving money from the United States in order to carry out anti-government activities.
- An Amnesty International report, CUBA: fundamental freedoms still under attack, calls for the "Cuban authorities to release all prisoners of conscience immediately and unconditionally" and to "revoke all legislation that restricts freedom of expression, assembly and association, and to put a halt to all actions to harass and intimidate dissidents, journalists, and human rights defenders".
- Jorge Luis García Pérez was reported to have been released from prison in April 2007 after serving his full sentence of 17 years and 34 days for having, at the age of 25, shouted slogans against Fidel Castro. García Antúnez was convicted of sabotage after authorities accused him of setting fire to sugar cane fields, sabotage, spreading "enemy propaganda", and being in illegal possession of a weapon.[69][70]
- Dr. Ariel Ruiz Urquiola, whom Amnesty International had declared "a prisoner of conscience" and demanded that he be released "immediately and without conditions".
- On September 2, 2020, Article 19, Institute for War and Peace Reporting and Amnesty International urged the Cuban government to immediately release prisoner of conscience and independent journalist, Roberto Quiñones Haces. Following the trial in August 2019 and he was sentenced to one-year imprisonment for resistance and disobedience concerning his work as an independent journalist.[71]
Travel and emigration
As of January 14, 2013, all Cuban government-imposed travel restrictions and controls have been abolished.[72][73] Since that date, any Cuban citizen, with a valid passport, can leave the country at will, without let or hindrance from the Cuban authorities. Visa requirements for Cuban citizens are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states placed on citizens of Cuba. In 2014, Cuban citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 61 countries and territories, ranking the Cuban passport 69th in the world. Persons holding dual Spanish and Cuban citizenships are now allowed to travel freely, using their Spanish passport in lieu of a visa for countries normally requiring a visa for the Cuban passport. Moreover, ever since that date, the Cuban government extended the allowable time abroad from 11 to 24 months, allowing Cubans who return within the 24-month time frame to retain their status and benefits of "Cuban Resident of the Interior". Should the citizen remain out of Cuba for more than 24 months, then his status would change to "Cuban Resident of the Exterior" and he would lose his privileges within. By this change, there is no longer such a thing as "illegal" or "unauthorized" travel, and therefore persons who leave Cuba via unconventional means (boats etc.) are no longer violating Cuban law, and therefore not subject to detention or imprisonment.
Prior to January 13, 2013, Cuban citizens could not travel abroad, leave or return to Cuba without first obtaining official permission along with applying for a government issued passport and travel visa, which was often denied.[74] Unauthorized travel abroad had sometimes resulted in criminal prosecution. It was common, in those days, that certain citizens who were authorized travel (primarily medical personnel and other professionals deemed essential to the country) were not permitted to take their children with them overseas. In the event that Cuban doctors defect to the United States when they are sent to a "mission" out of Cuba to any foreign country, any children left behind would not be allowed to join their defector parent for a minimum of ten years, even if they had received a foreign visa, and regardless of their age.[74] Castro opposition leader Oswaldo Payá has been allowed to travel abroad to receive his Sakharov Prize, but Ladies in White was not.[75]
From 1959 through 1993, some 1.2 million Cubans (about 10% of the current population) left the island for the United States,
At times the exodus was tolerated by the Cuban government as a "release valve"; at other times the government has impeded it. Some Cubans left for economic reasons and some for political ones. Others emigrated by way of the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, which is blocked on the Cuban (land) side by barbed-wired fences and land mines.[citation needed]
In 1995 the US government entered into an agreement with the Cuban government to resolve the emigration crisis that created the
On July 13, 1994, 72 Cubans attempted to leave the Island on a
The US Coast Guard reported that the interceptions in high seas have been characterized as violent confrontations with authorities and by the deaths of immigrants. According to the same authorities, the Cubans are taken to the US on speed boats by a network of criminals specialized in human trafficking, former drug traffickers, based in southern Florida which now find contraband of humans more lucrative than drugs. These criminals charge 8 to 12 thousand dollars per person, overcrowding the small vessels. The majority of those that attempt to emigrate are individuals that have relatives in the United States, others who do not qualify to be considered as legal immigrants in the US, or those who do not want to wait their turn in the annual quota, assigned under the migratory treaties for legal immigrants [77]
Since November 1966, the Cuban Adjustment Act provides automatic permanent residency for almost all Cubans arriving legally or illegally after one year and one day in the US. No immigrant from any other nation has this privilege. Controversy over this policy centers around the loss of Cuba's scientists, professionals, technicians and other skilled individuals, but it has also prompted concerns of a migratory crisis.[citation needed]
At the end of the 2005 fiscal year which ended September 30, the US Coast Guard Service reported having intercepted 2,712 Cubans at sea, more than double the 1,225 reported in 2004[77] The figure for 2005 is the third highest of Cubans intercepted in the Florida straights during the last 12 years. The highest had been reported in 1993 with 3,656 and 1994 when over 30,000 Cubans emigrated illegally due to the so-called migratory crisis between the two countries.[77]
The 1994 and 1995 migratory accords signed between Havana and Washington, and which emerged due to the crisis in August 1994, are still in effect. These accords force the US to return all those intercepted at sea by US authorities to Cuba, except the cases in which political persecution can be proven to justify exile in the United States.[78]
The accords were designed to discourage those who would consider emigrating illegally by sea but the Bush administration has not complied with Washington's part of the agreements.[citation needed] Although the Coast Guard says that only 2.5 percent of the Cubans intercepted are granted political asylum, the public understanding, the public perception in Cuba and among the Cuban community in Miami, is not the same. And since that is not the perception, more and more people continue to illegally leave the island by sea causing fatal consequences. According to studies carried out by Cuban experts on the island, it is estimated that at least 15 percent of those that attempt to cross the sea die before reaching the US.[77]
However, figures of those fleeing other Latin American or Caribbean countries of origin compare similarly with those of Cuba. During the 2005 fiscal year, 3,612 Dominicans were picked up at high seas attempting to illegally reach the US (900 more than Cubans intercepted) and in 2004, 3,229 Haitians were also picked up (2,000 more than the 1,225 Cubans that fiscal year). The Brazilian daily O Globo published an article on illegal immigrants in the US, quoting official sources, pointing out that during the first semester of 2005, 27,396 Brazilians were stopped from illegally crossing US borders, an average of 4,556 per month and 152 a day. In 2004, a total of 1,160,000 foreigners, were stopped when attempting to illegally enter the US, 93 percent of them (close to 1,080,000) were Mexicans.[77]
Education
Education in Cuba is free at all levels and led by the Ministry for Education. In 1961 the government nationalized all private educational institutions and introduced a state-directed education system.
Healthcare
The Cuban government operates on national health system and assumes full fiscal and administrative responsibility for the health care of its citizens. The government prohibits any private alternatives to the national health system. In 1976, Cuba's healthcare program was enshrined in Article 50 of the revised constitution which states, "Everyone has the right to health protection and care". Healthcare in Cuba is also free.
However, there is no right to privacy, or a patient's informed consent, or the right to protest or sue a doctor or clinic for malpractice.
After spending nine months in Cuban clinics, anthropologist Katherine Hirschfeld wrote "My increased awareness of Cuba's criminalization of dissent raised a very provocative question: to what extent is the favorable international image of the Cuban health care system maintained by the state's practice of suppressing dissent and covertly intimidating or imprisoning would-be critics?"[79][undue weight? ]
Family doctors are expected to keep records of their patients' "political integration."[80][81] Epidemiological surveillance has become juxtaposed with political surveillance.[80][81]
Religious freedom
In the years following the
In 2022, Freedom House rated Cuba’s religious freedom as 3 out of 4,[83] noting that religious freedom has improved over the past decade.
A 2023 report found that documented Freedom of Religion violations more than doubled from 272 in 2021 to 657 in 2022.[84]
Rights of women
Cuba is a regional front-runner in women's rights.[85] With respect to reproductive rights, Cuban women have up to two years of maternity leave and free access to abortion.[85]
Women head almost 50% of households in Cuba.
Torture
In 2005 a group of culture personalities, including several
Race relations
Esteban Morales Dominguez has pointed to
Enrique Patterson, writing in the Miami Herald, describes race as a "social bomb" and he says, "If the Cuban government were to permit black Cubans to organize and raise their problems before [authorities] ... totalitarianism would fall".[89] Carlos Moore, who has authored extensively on the issue, says that "There is an unstated threat, blacks in Cuba know that whenever you raise race in Cuba, you go to jail. Therefore, the struggle in Cuba is different. There cannot be a civil rights movement. You will have instantly 10,000 black people dead".[89] He says that a new generation of black Cubans are looking at politics in another way.[89]
Despite these barriers however, Cuba has oftentimes been praised for advances of the Cuban Revolution in the areas of racial equality. During his leadership, Castro abolished segregation in businesses and public spaces while also ushering in egalitarian reforms in areas such as employment, wages, social security, and education. The proportion of high school graduates was actually higher among blacks than among whites in Cuba, whereas the opposite was true in both Brazil and the United States.[91] In the area of life expectancy, The life expectancy of nonwhite Cubans was only one year lower than that of whites; life expectancy was basically identical for all racial groups. A powerful indicator of social wellbeing, linked to access to health services (as reflected, particularly, in infant mortality), nutrition and education, the Cuban race gap in life expectancy was significantly lower than those found in more affluent multiracial societies such as Brazil (about 6.7 years) and the United States (about 6.3 years) during the same period.[91] Because of these social reforms the Afro Cuban population is the healthiest longest living black population in the world.[92] In the area of national leadership the vestiges of the pre revolutionary era are still visible when it comes to the question of colour, with Afro Cubans having yet to achieve parity when it comes to representation. Nevertheless, reforms have been introduced since in the 1970s when Castro "worked to increase the number of Afro-Cuban political representatives, with the percentage of Black members on the Council of State expanding from 12.9% in 1976 to 25.8% by 2003".[93]
Black Spring
In March 2003, the government of Cuba arrested dozens of people (including self-identified journalists and
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque denied these accusations and responded: "Cuba has the right to defend itself and apply punishment just like other nations do, like the United States punishes those who cooperate with a foreign power to inflict damage on their people and territory."[96]
During the trial, evidence was presented that the defendants had received funds from the U.S. Interests Section. Cuban officials claim that the goal of this funding was to undermine the Cuban state, disrupt internal order, and damage the Cuban economy. For his part, Cason denies offering funds to anyone in Cuba.
On November 29, 2004, the Cuban government released three of those arrested in March 2003: Oscar Espinosa Chepe, Marcelo López, and Margarito Broche. The action followed a meeting between the Spanish ambassador and Cuba's foreign minister.[97] In subsequent days four more dissidents were released: Raúl Rivero, Osvaldo Alfonso Valdés,[98] Edel José García[99] and Jorge Olivera.[100] Seven other prisoners had previously been released for health reasons.
LGBT rights in Cuba
The rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in Cuba have evolved significantly over time, from widespread discrimination in most of the 20th century to what are now considered some of the most progressive LGBT policies in Latin America.[101]
Discrimination
Thousands of
In the late 1960s, because of "revolutionary social hygiene", the Castro government claimed to cleanse the arts of "fraudulent sodomitic" writers and "sick effeminate" dancers.[103] Additionally, men with long hair were locked up and their hair was cut.[103]
Castro is reported to once have asserted that, "in the country[side], there are no homosexuals", before claiming in 1992 that homosexuality is a "natural human tendency that must simply be respected".
21st century reforms
Cuba has made reforms in the 21st century,[107] particularly via the successful 2022 Family Code referendum.[101]
In 2003, Carlos Sanchez of the
In a 2010 interview with Mexican newspaper La Jornada, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, Fidel Castro, called the persecution of homosexuals whilst he was in power "a great injustice, great injustice!" Taking responsibility for the persecution, he said, "If anyone is responsible, it's me ... We had so many and such terrible problems, problems of life or death. In those moments I was not able to deal with that matter [of homosexuals]. I found myself immersed, principally, in the Crisis of October, in the war, in policy questions." Castro personally believed that the negative treatment of gays in Cuba arose out of the country's pre-revolutionary attitudes toward homosexuality.[112]
Mariela Castro, daughter of Communist Party First Secretary Raúl Castro, has been pushing for lesbian rights with the pro-lesbian government sponsored Cuban National Center for Sex Education which she leads. Mariela has stated her father fully supports her initiatives, saying that her father has overcome his initial homophobia to support his daughter.[113]
The passage of the 2022 Family Code referendum legalized same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex parents.[101] Cuba now has one of the most progressive stances on LGBT rights of among Latin American countries.[101]
United Nations Human Rights Commission
Cuban human rights have been repeatedly discussed and debated in the
The organized and sustained international effort launched by prominent Cuban dissident groups (e.g. Miami's Center for Human Rights,
Since 1990, the United States itself has presented various resolutions to the annual
Cuban human rights groups
- Cuban Democratic Directorate (Directorio)
- Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba
- International Committee for Democracy in Cuba
- Cuban Liberty Council
- Cuban dissidents
- Ladies in White
See also
- Disability in Cuba
- Guantanamo Bay detention camp
- Sebastian Arcos Bergnes
- Darsi Ferrer Ramírez
- Cuban political prisoners hunger strike of 2010
References
- ^ "World Report 2020: Rights Trends in Cuba". Human Rights Watch. 2019-12-06. Retrieved 2021-02-23.
- ^ "Everything you need to know about human rights in Cuba". www.amnesty.org. Retrieved 2021-02-23.
- ^ "Cuba releases dissidents Felix Navarro and Jose Ferrer". BBC News. 2011-03-23. Retrieved 2021-02-23.
- ^ "Havel hails anti-Castro activists". BBC News. September 18, 2004. Retrieved January 5, 2010.
- ^ a b "Cuba's repressive machinery". Human Rights Watch. 1999.
- ^ a b "Press Freedom Index 2008" (PDF). Reporters Without Borders. 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-03.
- ^ "Going online in Cuba: Internet under surveillance" (PDF). Reporters Without Borders. 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-03.
- ^ a b "World Report 2017: Rights Trends in Cuba". Human Rights Watch. 12 January 2017.
- ^ "Cuba 2017/2018". Amnesty International.
- ^ "Cuban women cite gender challenges as they push to open businesses". NBC News. 2022-01-06. Retrieved 2023-10-01.
- ^ "Country Fact Sheet | UN Women Data Hub". data.unwomen.org. Retrieved 2023-10-01.
- ^ "Report from the British commissionary judge, Havana, to the Foreign secretary (Lord Stanley)." September 30, 1866. Thomas, Hugh. Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom. p.1050.
- ^ "Harvard Rhetorical Society".
- Hugh Thomas. Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom. p.388
- ^ Bethell, Leslie. Cuba.
- ISBN 978-0-674-01612-5.
- ^ CIA (1963). Political Murders in Cuba -- Batista Era Compared with Castro Regime
- ^ Wickham-Crowley, Timothy P. (1990). Exploring Revolution: Essays on Latin American Insurgency and Revolutionary Theory. Armonk and London: M.E. Sharpe. P. 63 "Estimates of hundreds or perhaps about a thousand deaths due to Batista's terror are also supported by comments made by Fidel Castro and other Batista critics during the war itself."
- ^ Guerra, Lillian (2012). Visions of Power in Cuba: Revolution, Redemption, and Resistance, 1959–1971. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 42 "The likely total was probably closer to three to four thousand."
- ^ Conflict, Order, and Peace in the Americas, by the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, 1978, p. 121. "The US-supported Batista regime killed 20,000 Cubans"
- ISBN 0-8369-2521-1, pg 77. "All told, Batista's second dictatorship cost the Cuban people some 20,000 dead"
- ISBN 1-869847-43-1, pg 209. "Batista engineered yet another coup, establishing a dictatorial regime, which was responsible for the death of 20,000 Cubans."
- ISBN 0-8476-7450-9, pg 344. "Under Batista at least 20,000 people were put to death."
- John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
- ^ a b "CUBA: Strongman's Round". Time. April 21, 1958. Archived from the original on August 15, 2009. Retrieved May 4, 2010.
- ^ The Day After — Cuba: His Brother's Keeper Foreign Policy archive.
- ^ The End of the Rule of Law March 1959 Archived March 12, 2013, at the Wayback Machine Fidel Castro, by Robert E. Quirk 1993
- ^ Cuban National Reconciliation movement Task force report 2003
- ^ British Foreign Office. Chancery American Department, Foreign Office, London September 2, 1959 (2181/59) to British Embassy Havana classified as restricted Released 2000 by among British Foreign Office papers FOREIGN OFFICES FILES FOR CUBA Part 1: Revolution in Cuba "in our letter 1011/59 May 6 we mentioned that a Russian workers' delegation had been invited to participate in the May Day celebrations here, but had been delayed. The interpreter with the party, which arrived later and stayed in Cuba a few days, was called Vadim Kotchergin although he was at the time using what he subsequently claimed was his mother's name of Liston (?). He remained in the background, and did not attract any attention.."
- ^ "El campo de entrenamiento "Punto Cero" donde el Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC) adiestra a terroristas nacionales e internacionales". Cuban American Foundation. November 7, 2005. Archived from the original on October 30, 2007. Retrieved 2008-01-08.
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(help) (English title: The training camp "Point Zero" where the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) trained national and international terrorists)
"... Los coroneles soviéticos de la KGB Vadim Kochergin y Victor Simonov (ascendido a general en 1970) fueron entrenadores en "Punto Cero" desde finales de los años 60 del siglo pasado. Uno de los" graduados" por Simonov en este campo de entrenamiento es Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, más conocido como "Carlos El Chacal". Otro "alumno" de esta instalación del terror es el mexicano Rafael Sebastián Guillén, alias "subcomandante Marcos", quien se "graduó" en "Punto Cero" a principio de los años 80." - ^ Levitin, Michael (November 4, 2007). "La Stasi entrenó a la Seguridad cubana". Nuevo Herald. Archived from the original on September 28, 2008.
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- ^ "Fidel Castro takes blame for 1960s gay persecution". The Globe and Mail. Reuters. 31 August 2010. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ^ Voss, Michael (March 27, 2008). "Castro champions gay rights in Cuba". BBC News.
I've seen changes in my father since I was a child. I saw him as macho and homophobic. But as I have grown and changed as a person, so I have seen him change.
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- ^ a b U.N. panel condemns Cuba for rights abuses Miami Herald April 19, 2001
- ^ a b Cuba, the U.N. Human Rights Commission and the OAS Race Council on Hemispheric Affairs
- ^ U.N. rights panel votes to criticize Cuba Miami Herald 2000
External links
- Human rights in Cuba at Curlie
- Cuba on Human Rights Watch